Belle Gueule Pilsner: A Löschzwerg on the mountain

At the risk of becoming repetitive and monotonous, I was on the top of a mountain today and I felt a tremendous thirst that needed to be extinguished. The local depanneur had a selection of beers, although exclusively in midget extinguisher size containers. The Belle Gueule Pilsner is the sister to the original Belle Gueule lager, with which it should not be confused. Both beers are fine brews by les Brasseurs RJ in Montreal, but the original Belle Gueule has a Munich or Vienna quality unlike most Canadian-brewed German style beers (notable exception to come in a future post, and that makes two more beers I will have to drink - poor me). For today, and not quite enough to extinguish my thirst, the Pilsner was the only choice from les Brasseurs RJ, which is a very nice interpretation of more northern German style Pilsener beers.

Les Brasseurs RJ are the outcome of a merger of three breweries, among which les Brasseurs GMT were the first microbrewery in Montreal, les Brasseurs de l'Anse were a regional brewer from the Saguenay Valley, and Brasserie Cheval Blanc was a separate brewery from the also well known Montreal brewpub of the same name (my readings tell me both were set up by the same person - references are available upon request). These fine people have since continued brewing their best products, helped bring the beers of the Bitburger Group into Quebec, and set up shop in the Plateau Montreal district, with a hall available to rent for private functions.

The Belle Gueule Pilsner has an exemplary malt character for a Canadian lager, close to the ultimate standard of German malt in a blond lager style. While there is some faint (mainstream Canadian) candy sweetness somewhere in the front of my palate, toward the middle, a rich taste of bread grain spreads on my tongue, saying (because it is  German malt flavor) "hallo mein Freund, lösch deinen Durst!" So I said "But how? - You're only a midget extinguisher! A Löschzwerg!" Still, Belle Gueule Pilsner is technically well made and has a sophisticated hop character that makes for a balanced taste from front to back and serves up a dry finish.

PS: let me add that I like the symmetries in the first photo below, the way certain elements line up and others criss-cross or diverge. I also like the refraction of the background through the clear golden colour of the amber nectar.

A Beer on a Mountain Part 3: DAB

Continuing with the fabulous backgrounds the Laurentian mountains have provided for my starlets over the past few days, I took advantage of the spooky mood that a cloud-covered mountain can provide and served up an Export from the Dortmunder Action Brauerei (DAB). I have to admit that I have never been to Dortmund, but given the rivalry of my favorite football club with the one from Dortmund and the heinous insolence through which Dortmund copied my team's club name, I find it appropriate to give the DAB a nice haunting stage design. Indeed, Dortmund is located in the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhrgebiet in which coal and steel industries have always been the backbone. I contrive stark silhouettes of smoke stacks and factories in heavy fog as an alternative, industrial view, compared to the actual nature view in the photo below. Smoke stacks and factories would also make an interesting stage design for another day's malt star.  What is in the future for heavy industry? The same as for brewing, I imagine, where we have seen consolidation followed by creative niche specialization. The big get bigger and work based on an engineer's logic, the small stay small and work based on an artisan's logic, and the middle is squeezed out because they are not big enough to meet the demands of the engineer, and they are too large to be seen as a legitimate artisan. Good thing that DAB is playing legitimately among the big boys, I should say, because I enjoyed extinguishing my thirst with this DAB specimen, arriving in what appears to be a recently re-done can design.

I do not believe it is well known outside of Germany that Dortmunder is actually considered a beer style of its own, developed as an alternative to Pilsener and Munich lagers. What makes this beer appealing to me is the mouthfeel, which is a rich and velvety blend of breads, balanced with subtle hops bitterness.DAB beer has the typical German malt flavors that make me drool like a dog - think of a Ukrainian Easter Braid loaf or a fresh croissant. I have never tasted a Canadian beer that has this same rich malt taste, while Dutch and Czech beers do have it, and so I speculate that this has something to do with the difference between North American grown and European grown barley. The malt flavours in most Canadian beers are less bread-like and rather dry, more akin to Melba toast. DAB's gentle hop flavors make the taste of sweet malted barley fields become more pronounced but still provide a nice clean palate at the end. Dortmund, I spit on your football, but I savour your beer!

Boddingtons on a hum-drum Mont Onontio

Some of Manchester's finest once sang "The rain falls hard on a hum-drum town," and for a Mancunian beer such as Boddingtons it seemed appropriate to take it out on a walk through the woods in drizzling conditions. Sadly, I have to admit that this post should have been done sometime before the 1980s when Boddingtons was still an independent brewery, simply to give my stage presentation more honesty. Facing the competitive and political pressures from other brewing interests means today that Boddington may still be called the "Cream of Manchester" but it certainly is not brewed there anymore at the old Strangeways Brewery. Indeed, as so many that have felt the pressure of globalization, Boddingtons has now become an AB-InBev brand. On the bright side, I was not so much concerned about the temperature, as a British ale will always respond well to lower temperature serving conditions. I am a little embarrassed and ambivalent about the container with the "widget", appalling to the purist in me, yet its copy creation of a a draft beer is reassuring that even on the peak of a small mountain, with no amenities other than an ample supply of old shoe parts, a draft beer can be enjoyed without a care in the world. Boddingtons is technically well made. The sweet malt of caramel and toast on the front palate finishes in a nice dark crystal malt acidity, and both malt characters are well accompanied by a mellow lingering bitterness. All this, of course, typical for British ales. The widget's magic also meant that the mouthfeel of this beer was indeed creamy and characteristically low in carbonation. Ah, a draft beer with a view!

See how the widget creates three layers of beer when you pour it, including the in-between head and liquid stage seen in  the picture below, which friends who do serious research in beer brewing tell me is a serious topic of study.

One has to like the copper appearance - smooth and creamy, as it says on the can.

Schneider Weisse on a Mountain

Ah, German beer. How do I love you? Let me count the ways. I love the richness of your flavours that signal top notch quality raw materials; I love the brewing standards that make for an impeccable achievement of authentic style; I love the quaffableness (or is it quaffability?) that allows me to drink you in vast quantities. I could go on, but let's stop here and turn our attention to the beauty of the day. Schneider Weisse - a classic among Bavarian wheat beer - I fell in love with it in Munich, where I lived for two years as a teenager. Even though Schneider Weisse literally means Schneider White, this original brand is actually a dark wheat beer (copper, rousse), something one would hardly see in a Belgian wheat beer (notable exceptions are brewed in Quebec). And I took this specimen to the top of Mont Tremblant, making sure a Bavarian beer receives a quasi-Bavarian backdrop. Unfortunately, certain compromises had to be made to take the photo. I would have liked to serve up Schneider in a real Weissbierglass, but it would have been too bulky to take one up the mountain, given that I was already carrying my camera equipment, the 500ml bottle, and various other things. Another issue was the serving temperature - my aims are not just toward the picture but more importantly the savoring of the beer, and a wheat beer should be enjoyed chilled. I made it just about in time, so my refreshment on the peak of the mountain was still cool. On the up side, walking up and around the mountain for a while made for a convenient way to mix some of the yeast sediment into the beer, which you can see in the cloudy appearance below. I do think the mountainous backdrop made this beer taste particularly refreshing, or maybe it was the walking... Either way, the Schneider Weisse has a dominating acidic character that comes with certainty from the yeast flavours (sour dough bread) but possibly also from the dark malts. The taste is bread all the way - I always knew beer is a food, and I am sure the reader will agree with me. Overall, this is a nicely balanced beer that makes you want to yodel of joy into the valleys below.

Heineken vs Pabst Blue Ribbon at the Olympics

Today I conducted a beer comparison that I want to share with the reader. It is a comparison that was rigged right from the start, not because I wanted it that way but because it was the way it worked out, given the talent available in my area. And it was a comparison I just had to make, for a number of reasons, some of which may become apparent below. Think about a soccer match at the Olympics and follow the score: At kickoff, let's examine the formations of the teams: Heineken is in a tall bottle of 650 ml, while the Pabst Blue Ribbon comes in a 355ml can. The former has a strong lineup, coming not only in a bottle rather than a can, but also in a decent size, above the diminutive stature of Midget Extinguisher, where we find the Pabst. Opening up play and bottle, Pabst Blue Ribbon's nose is a faint and sweet grain smell, while Heineken's is slightly skunky. Neither side is living up to what a truly snobbish fan would expect. As play unfolds, I pour both beers and manage to build a nice cap on the Heineken, while the head of the Pabst tends to fizzle very quickly. The packaging and appearance of the beers, which are otherwise quite similar, means a score from a set play for Heineken. It appears that both teams are now ready for a break, and PBR is down at half-time. After a short break, the whistle blows to start the second half. While PBR shows itself technically competent it has not enough style to turn things around. Heineken has a richer mouth-feel and more elaborate bready malt taste, compared to PBR's watery palate and its sweetness that starts and then lingers on the palate. There are no hops attacks in sight from PBR. Heineken manages to score on a late counter attack and clears the palate for a clean sheet. Even in time added on, we see Heineken control the play with a clearly superior lacing. But what is that? The officials are annulling the game and claim to have disqualified Heineken from the competition because it is sold in a green bottle. The snobbish fan is crushed as he listens to Frank articulate the political reasons behind the disqualification.

A nice bubble attests to malt quality.

The lacing, with the glasses in reverse position due to the tasting process and concurrently exuberant inattention.

Cascade Spéciale

Venturing out further into the more exotic offerings of the Quebec micro-brewing scene, I tried the Cascade Spéciale from Brasseurs Illimités' Simple Malt line of beers. The brewery is located in Saint-Eustache, just north-west of Montreal, and I had tried their Alt beer with some satisfaction about a year ago. I have to admit, that this is another brewery about which I know very little - it is a member of the third generation craft brewers in Quebec. The craft brewing movement started here, as elsewhere in Canada, in the 1980s, followed in the 1990s by a second generation that was able to build on the pioneering success of breweries like McAuslan, Unibroue, Brasseurs du Nord, Brasal, Les Brasseurs GMT, and Seigneurial. Toward the mid-1990s and the turn of the last millennium, things got shaken up. Some brewers consolidated (e.g., GMT merged with Brasseurs de l’Anse and Brasserie du Cheval Blanc to become Les Brasseurs RJ), some went under (e.g., Brasal - their equipment was sold off to help Steam Whistle set up in Toronto, I think) and others were bought up by bigger outfits (e.g., Seigneurial and Unibroue were both acquired by Sleeman) or entered into joint ventures (e.g., McAuslan hooked up with Moosehead in 2003 or so, a liaison that has since been dissolved). In the new millennium, many more smaller outfits have populated the Quebec landscape and made this province a place to come and drool for beer freaks, beer snobs, beer aficionados, and Lupumaniacs (see post on La Houblonniere). As previously mentioned, I will work my way through many of these breweries, as well as the old guard.

The Cascade Spéciale is billed as an American Pale Ale, and the name certainly promised a fine morsel of pleasure for the Lupumaniac in me. I have to admit, though, that this beer somewhat disappointed. Its colour was too dark for my expectation of a pale ale, its flavours were too malty for an American style pale ale, and as you might be able to see in the picture, it was cloudy from a residue of yeast in the bottle. Indeed, there were bits and chunks of yeast floating around, leaving a quarter-sized blob of sludge in my glass after I emptied the old Totenkopf mug. It was not a bad beer - the malt-hops balance was pleasant, and there were slight hoppy flavours at the front of the palate that I enjoyed thoroughly. You can also see the nice head development on the skullcap (credit to one of my fellow beer aficionados for using this term to describe the head on the Totenkopf mug). But overall, the brown toast and caramel flavours gave this beer a character that was too malty for my liking and did not fit the style. I had expected more hops aroma and a more pungent Cascade nose.

Dieu du Ciel! Blanche du Paradis

Today, one of the beers I drank was another delicious nectar from our good friends at Dieu du Ciel! And it was gone within minutes, I assure you, given the midget size of the bottle and the quaffable nature of Belgian blanche/wit beer. It was very Belgian indeed; pale in colour and cloudy from plenty of suspended yeast; a top quality mouthfeel and ample bread flavours.There were emphatic clove and grapefruit tastes, the latter mixing nicely with a subtle hop bitterness. Altogether, this beer met all expectations, notwithstanding the fact that I generally prefer the German wheat beer style to the Belgian one. The addition of spices is not really my cup of tea (or rather, mug of beer!), and Belgians like to throw in flavoring agents to add something to the palate (The bottle does declare spices in the list of ingredients). No good German brewer who recites the Reinheitsgebot every night before going to bed would dare put any such foreign objects into their brew. The Blanche du Paradis also has wonderful label, about which my 6-year old daughter asked: "what kind of princess is that?" I explained to her that it is a beer princess, an answer that was met with a fair dose of skepticism.

Here is another Dieu du Ciel family picture from my photo shoot in front of the pub: